I don’t know what I was expecting when I moved to the country; green grass, waking up to the morning sunlight, birds chirping…Well, I did get those things, but along with all of that comes other elements of country living which include field mice, rattlesnakes, and lots and lots of bugs.

After a few months of living here, we started noticing mice in our garage. The weather was getting cooler and just like humans, they were searching for a warm place to stay. The only problem is that our house doesn’t have “mouse quarters.” So, something immediately had to be done. We added kitties Peter, Paul, and Martha to our family less than a few weeks after that. Immediately after their arrival, the mouse motel closed down and any other mice we saw were dead ones on an occasion.

For the past week, my children and I have been exiting and entering through our garage door because one of the cats left a “present” at the front door. Although I have cleaned up a few of the kill, I just wasn’t ready for it this past week; but I can now look without covering my eyes. My husband took care of it when he arrived home.

The only problem with worker cats is that they pretty much kill anything small that moves. That includes members of the cute family of partridges that scoot across our yard every morning and any other bird for that matter that isn’t quick enough to get away. It is really sad, but I have come to realize that they are behaving true to their nature. Either I allow them to do what they do naturally all of the time otherwise, they won’t do what they were “hired” to do (kill mice) when they need to. I have intervened a few times and I wish I hadn’t because it was too late to save the bird and then a few other times, I was able to rescue one or two and give them an opportunity to get away.

Later this evening, my older two children came running inside excitedly talking in unison about something they saw outside…bees were eating it…it was dead. We had no idea what they were talking about and I thought for sure they were exaggerating about whatever is was they saw. Once we got outside, as usual, everything they said is exactly what we saw. Apparently, a baby rabbit wasn’t as quick on its feet and had been killed by one of our cats. I can’t imagine that they did it because they are so cute, but my husband threw them under the bus and said, “yes they did!” He is rather proud of his worker cats. One thing was that I have never seen bees feast on a dead animal before. There may be a nature study in that.

To set the record straight, neither my husband nor I are for the maiming and/or killing of animals. When I tell my city family about the escapades of our worker cats, they give me a city response of, “oh,” and they shake their heads in sadness, which I would have done before moving here. I still become sad, but I realize that the cats are going to do what is instinctive which again is why they are a part of our family.

Along with accepting their behavior, I have also grown more comfortable with viewing and cleaning up their kill (which I wish they would do themselves). I’m glad my husband was around this time to clean up the poor rabbit, because he is a little larger than what I have picked up in the past. Hey, I said I can now look without covering my eyes, but I didn’t mention from what distance.